Electrifying the streets : the surface-contact controversy in five English towns 1880-1920

The turn of the nineteenth century was an exciting time for urban transport innovation. Inventors and entrepreneurs sought a power source that was efficient and economical. In some towns, however, other considerations were equally important in choices about transport mode and subsequent operation. Technology, socio-cultural, political, and economic concerns, as well as environmental and aesthetic considerations were all factors. This research considers their influence in the social shaping of the design and implementation processes.Opposition to overhead tram traction was widespread but quickly overcome inmost towns. However, after lengthy debates, five towns in England opted for the surface-contact system. Of these, Wolverhampton and Hastings are the main focus for this research because they occupy opposite ends of the social and political spectrum. Lincoln, Torquay, and Mexborough, where surface-contact traction survived for some time, are covered in less detail.Most historians of technology regard surface-contact tram traction as a failure anda temporary deviation from electric traction development. They maintain that surface-contact was technologically and economically unattractive compared to conventional overhead systems. More recent historians have suggested that aesthetic arguments were a surrogate for other interests. Through an analysis of primary and secondary source material, this thesis investigates those claims. It finds that despite technical difficulties, surface-contact traction survived for several years in the five towns, fulfilling the aesthetic ideals of the time and supporting economic and social development in the process. To this extent, the thesis judges surface-contact to have been a success.The evolution of urban transport, the development of the towns, and social dynamics including networks of power are all covered, together with aesthetic,environmental and economic considerations, as well as political and commercial pressures. The thesis examines how these diverse issues influenced decisions,and concludes there was no single factor that prompted either adoption or abandonment

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems 2013

Challenges arising from an increasing traffic demand, limited resource availability and growing quality expectations of the customers can only be met successfully, if each transport mode is regarded as an intelligent transportation system itself, but also as part of one intelligent transportation system with “intelligent” intramodal and intermodal interfaces. This topic is well reflected in the Third International Conference on “Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems” which took place in Dresden 2013 (previous editions: Rome 2009, Leuven 2011). With its variety of traffic management problems that can be solved using similar methods and technologies, but with application specific models, objective functions and constraints the conference stands for an intensive exchange between theory and practice and the presentation of case studies for all transport modes and gives a discussion forum for control engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and other researchers and practitioners. The present book comprises fifty short papers accepted for presentation at the Third Edition of the conference. All submissions have undergone intensive reviews by the organisers of the special sessions, the members of the scientific and technical advisory committees and further external experts in the field. Like the conference itself the proceedings are structured in twelve streams: the more model-oriented streams of Road-Bound Public Transport Management, Modelling and Control of Urban Traffic Flow, Railway Traffic Management in four different sessions, Air Traffic Management, Water Traffic and Traffic and Transit Assignment, as well as the technology-oriented streams of Floating Car Data, Localisation Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Image Processing in Transportation. With this broad range of topics this book will be of interest to a number of groups: ITS experts in research and industry, students of transport and control engineering, operations research and computer science. The case studies will also be of interest for transport operators and members of traffic administration

Noise and Vibration Control in the Built Environment

With global urbanization rapidly rising and the increasing need of high-quality built environments, the requirement of achieving improved sound quality, both for outdoor and indoor environments, has received a lot of attention. This Special Issue collection reflects the current state of the art, with 12 papers covering environmental acoustics; the influence of soundscapes on people’s behavior; soundscape pleasantness estimation; tranquility; perceived quality of sonic environments; sound and vibration-related health complaints concerning tramways; and the disturbance of construction machines; as well as in building and room acoustics, including natural ventilation-enabling façade noise control devices; the effect of external shading devices; rating method of airborne sound insulation; water supply and drainage noise, and the effect of diffusive surfaces in auditoria. Some papers cover research on the engineering aspects of sound and vibration, such as sound propagation and noise control techniques, as well as perception aspects of sound, such as indoor acoustic comfort and environmental soundscapes. The book is prefaced by Prof. S Wu, entitled ‘Sustainable Urban Sound Environment’

Urban Ecosystem Services and Tourism

Urban tourism depends on the place specific qualities of destinations. In many cities, climate change poses a threat to these qualities, through increasing risk of excessive heat, draught and flooding. Cities need to adapt to reduce these risks. One way of doing this is to improve their green infrastructure. Urban forests, parks, rivers and wetlands may help reduce the effects of climate change in cities. At the same time, green infrastructure provide a variety of ecosystem services to the community. In particular, cultural ecosystem services such as recreation, andesthetical values take place in urban green infrastructure; they provide value in the form of improved experiences. These mainly benefit the locals but they may also be important for tourism. Such relations between ecosystem services and tourism have in earlier literature been recognized in rural contexts but very seldom in urban. This paper reports preliminary findings from qualitative case studies in the South of Sweden and Berlin, Germany. They focus on how urban planning projects (primarily aimed at mitigating GHG emissions and adapting to climatechange) can be extended to develop places where experience values for both residents and visitors are created alongside other kinds of ecosystem services. We suggest that the need for climate change adaptation in a city may be used as a means to improve its place specific qualities as a tourist destination. By developing green infrastructure in innovative and environmentally friendly ways, the quality of ecosystem services improves, including those relevant for both visitors and residents. Protecting and building green infrastructure, therebyenhancing a city´s visible qualities and its reputation as a sustainable destination, may also be valuable in marketing the city

Recycled railway corridors: an urban design perspective

In order to present an urban design perspective on recycled railway corridors this research considers the importance of place qualities to selected regional and neighbourhood transit contexts, also the spatial implications of a variety of certain differing transit modes are reviewed. This examination considers normative urban design criteria in relation to concepts of sustainable, transit-supportive built environments. This notion required a conceptual framework which accommodates the sophisticated and subjective aspects of regional design. Further, a visual methodology capable of accumulating significant quantities of data relevant to urban design was requisite. A qualitative case study strategy of inquiry was therefore adopted. Three UK recycled railway corridors were selected as case studies and considered independently and interdependently. This comparative analysis was predicated upon a variety of sources; archival, documentary and observational. This research uncovered urban design truths in the empirical context of recycled railway corridors. A high proportion of the instances examined in this research illustrate perfunctory urban design responses to public transit spaces, both in the regional and neighbourhood contexts. These instances were evocative of influences that prompt homogenisation in the anatomy of the built environment, with the automobile-dominated landscape showing prevalence. In these instances, normative urban design qualities were largely absent from the public realm. In lieu of these qualities ‘anywhere’ design responses, that failed to address issues of authenticity and place specificity, occupied those important spaces that relate to the public transit systems. However, this condition was not ubiquitous. This research examined instances where careful interdisciplinary ‘joined-up thinking’ has led to a set of place specific, transit supportive urban designs. Here, the opportunities inherent at the convergence of public transit systems and the human scale public realm have been taken advantage of. This has been achieved through the consideration of issues such as palimpsest, rootedness and place specificity, which have resulted in exemplars of bespoke, transit supportive urban designs

Recycled railway corridors: an urban design perspective

In order to present an urban design perspective on recycled railway corridors this research considers the importance of place qualities to selected regional and neighbourhood transit contexts, also the spatial implications of a variety of certain differing transit modes are reviewed. This examination considers normative urban design criteria in relation to concepts of sustainable, transit-supportive built environments. This notion required a conceptual framework which accommodates the sophisticated and subjective aspects of regional design. Further, a visual methodology capable of accumulating significant quantities of data relevant to urban design was requisite. A qualitative case study strategy of inquiry was therefore adopted. Three UK recycled railway corridors were selected as case studies and considered independently and interdependently. This comparative analysis was predicated upon a variety of sources; archival, documentary and observational. This research uncovered urban design truths in the empirical context of recycled railway corridors. A high proportion of the instances examined in this research illustrate perfunctory urban design responses to public transit spaces, both in the regional and neighbourhood contexts. These instances were evocative of influences that prompt homogenisation in the anatomy of the built environment, with the automobile-dominated landscape showing prevalence. In these instances, normative urban design qualities were largely absent from the public realm. In lieu of these qualities ‘anywhere’ design responses, that failed to address issues of authenticity and place specificity, occupied those important spaces that relate to the public transit systems. However, this condition was not ubiquitous. This research examined instances where careful interdisciplinary ‘joined-up thinking’ has led to a set of place specific, transit supportive urban designs. Here, the opportunities inherent at the convergence of public transit systems and the human scale public realm have been taken advantage of. This has been achieved through the consideration of issues such as palimpsest, rootedness and place specificity, which have resulted in exemplars of bespoke, transit supportive urban designs

A Political Economy of Access: Infrastructure, Networks, Cities, and Institutions

Why should you read another book about transport and land use? This book differs in that we won’t focus on empirical arguments – we present political arguments. We argue the political aspects of transport policy shouldn’t be assumed away or treated as a nuisance. Political choices are the core reasons our cities look and function the way they do. There is no original sin that we can undo that will lead to utopian visions of urban life. The book begins by introducing and expanding on the idea of Accessibility. Then we proceed through several major parts: Infrastructure Preservation, Network Expansion, Cities, and Institutions. Infrastructure preservation concerns the relatively short-run issues of how to maintain and operate the existing surface transport system (roads and transit). Network expansion in contrast is a long-run problem, how to enlarge the network, or rather, why enlarging the network is now so difficult. Cities examines how we organize, regulate, and expand our cities to address the failures of transport policy, and falls into the time-frame of the very long-run, as property rights and land uses are often stickier than the concrete of the network is durable. In the part on Institutions we consider things that might at first blush appear to be short-run and malleable, are in fact very long-run. Institutions seem to outlast the infrastructure they manage. Many of the transport and land use problems we want to solve already have technical solutions. What these problems don’t have, and what we hope to contribute, are political solutions. We expect the audience for this book to be practitioners, planners, engineers, advocates, urbanists, students of transport, and fellow academics

Urban Resilience in a Global Context: Actors, Narratives, and Temporalities

Urban Resilience is seen by many as a tool to mitigate harm in times of extreme social, political, financial, and environmental stress. Despite its widespread usage, however, resilience is used in different ways by policy makers, activists, academics, and practitioners. Some see it as a key to unlocking a more stable and secure urban future in times of extreme global insecurity; for others, it is a neoliberal technology that marginalizes the voices of already marginal peoples. This volume moves beyond praise and critique by focusing on the actors, narratives and temporalities that define urban resilience in a global context. By exploring the past, present, and future of urban resilience, this volume unlocks the potential of this concept to build more sustainable, inclusive, and secure cities in the 21st century

Automatic video segmentation employing object/camera modeling techniques

Practically established video compression and storage techniques still process video sequences as rectangular images without further semantic structure. However, humans watching a video sequence immediately recognize acting objects as semantic units. This semantic object separation is currently not reflected in the technical system, making it difficult to manipulate the video at the object level. The realization of object-based manipulation will introduce many new possibilities for working with videos like composing new scenes from pre-existing video objects or enabling user-interaction with the scene. Moreover, object-based video compression, as defined in the MPEG-4 standard, can provide high compression ratios because the foreground objects can be sent independently from the background. In the case that the scene background is static, the background views can even be combined into a large panoramic sprite image, from which the current camera view is extracted. This results in a higher compression ratio since the sprite image for each scene only has to be sent once. A prerequisite for employing object-based video processing is automatic (or at least user-assisted semi-automatic) segmentation of the input video into semantic units, the video objects. This segmentation is a difficult problem because the computer does not have the vast amount of pre-knowledge that humans subconsciously use for object detection. Thus, even the simple definition of the desired output of a segmentation system is difficult. The subject of this thesis is to provide algorithms for segmentation that are applicable to common video material and that are computationally efficient. The thesis is conceptually separated into three parts. In Part I, an automatic segmentation system for general video content is described in detail. Part II introduces object models as a tool to incorporate userdefined knowledge about the objects to be extracted into the segmentation process. Part III concentrates on the modeling of camera motion in order to relate the observed camera motion to real-world camera parameters. The segmentation system that is described in Part I is based on a background-subtraction technique. The pure background image that is required for this technique is synthesized from the input video itself. Sequences that contain rotational camera motion can also be processed since the camera motion is estimated and the input images are aligned into a panoramic scene-background. This approach is fully compatible to the MPEG-4 video-encoding framework, such that the segmentation system can be easily combined with an object-based MPEG-4 video codec. After an introduction to the theory of projective geometry in Chapter 2, which is required for the derivation of camera-motion models, the estimation of camera motion is discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. It is important that the camera-motion estimation is not influenced by foreground object motion. At the same time, the estimation should provide accurate motion parameters such that all input frames can be combined seamlessly into a background image. The core motion estimation is based on a feature-based approach where the motion parameters are determined with a robust-estimation algorithm (RANSAC) in order to distinguish the camera motion from simultaneously visible object motion. Our experiments showed that the robustness of the original RANSAC algorithm in practice does not reach the theoretically predicted performance. An analysis of the problem has revealed that this is caused by numerical instabilities that can be significantly reduced by a modification that we describe in Chapter 4. The synthetization of static-background images is discussed in Chapter 5. In particular, we present a new algorithm for the removal of the foreground objects from the background image such that a pure scene background remains. The proposed algorithm is optimized to synthesize the background even for difficult scenes in which the background is only visible for short periods of time. The problem is solved by clustering the image content for each region over time, such that each cluster comprises static content. Furthermore, it is exploited that the times, in which foreground objects appear in an image region, are similar to the corresponding times of neighboring image areas. The reconstructed background could be used directly as the sprite image in an MPEG-4 video coder. However, we have discovered that the counterintuitive approach of splitting the background into several independent parts can reduce the overall amount of data. In the case of general camera motion, the construction of a single sprite image is even impossible. In Chapter 6, a multi-sprite partitioning algorithm is presented, which separates the video sequence into a number of segments, for which independent sprites are synthesized. The partitioning is computed in such a way that the total area of the resulting sprites is minimized, while simultaneously satisfying additional constraints. These include a limited sprite-buffer size at the decoder, and the restriction that the image resolution in the sprite should never fall below the input-image resolution. The described multisprite approach is fully compatible to the MPEG-4 standard, but provides three advantages. First, any arbitrary rotational camera motion can be processed. Second, the coding-cost for transmitting the sprite images is lower, and finally, the quality of the decoded sprite images is better than in previously proposed sprite-generation algorithms. Segmentation masks for the foreground objects are computed with a change-detection algorithm that compares the pure background image with the input images. A special effect that occurs in the change detection is the problem of image misregistration. Since the change detection compares co-located image pixels in the camera-motion compensated images, a small error in the motion estimation can introduce segmentation errors because non-corresponding pixels are compared. We approach this problem in Chapter 7 by integrating risk-maps into the segmentation algorithm that identify pixels for which misregistration would probably result in errors. For these image areas, the change-detection algorithm is modified to disregard the difference values for the pixels marked in the risk-map. This modification significantly reduces the number of false object detections in fine-textured image areas. The algorithmic building-blocks described above can be combined into a segmentation system in various ways, depending on whether camera motion has to be considered or whether real-time execution is required. These different systems and example applications are discussed in Chapter 8. Part II of the thesis extends the described segmentation system to consider object models in the analysis. Object models allow the user to specify which objects should be extracted from the video. In Chapters 9 and 10, a graph-based object model is presented in which the features of the main object regions are summarized in the graph nodes, and the spatial relations between these regions are expressed with the graph edges. The segmentation algorithm is extended by an object-detection algorithm that searches the input image for the user-defined object model. We provide two objectdetection algorithms. The first one is specific for cartoon sequences and uses an efficient sub-graph matching algorithm, whereas the second processes natural video sequences. With the object-model extension, the segmentation system can be controlled to extract individual objects, even if the input sequence comprises many objects. Chapter 11 proposes an alternative approach to incorporate object models into a segmentation algorithm. The chapter describes a semi-automatic segmentation algorithm, in which the user coarsely marks the object and the computer refines this to the exact object boundary. Afterwards, the object is tracked automatically through the sequence. In this algorithm, the object model is defined as the texture along the object contour. This texture is extracted in the first frame and then used during the object tracking to localize the original object. The core of the algorithm uses a graph representation of the image and a newly developed algorithm for computing shortest circular-paths in planar graphs. The proposed algorithm is faster than the currently known algorithms for this problem, and it can also be applied to many alternative problems like shape matching. Part III of the thesis elaborates on different techniques to derive information about the physical 3-D world from the camera motion. In the segmentation system, we employ camera-motion estimation, but the obtained parameters have no direct physical meaning. Chapter 12 discusses an extension to the camera-motion estimation to factorize the motion parameters into physically meaningful parameters (rotation angles, focal-length) using camera autocalibration techniques. The speciality of the algorithm is that it can process camera motion that spans several sprites by employing the above multi-sprite technique. Consequently, the algorithm can be applied to arbitrary rotational camera motion. For the analysis of video sequences, it is often required to determine and follow the position of the objects. Clearly, the object position in image coordinates provides little information if the viewing direction of the camera is not known. Chapter 13 provides a new algorithm to deduce the transformation between the image coordinates and the real-world coordinates for the special application of sport-video analysis. In sport videos, the camera view can be derived from markings on the playing field. For this reason, we employ a model of the playing field that describes the arrangement of lines. After detecting significant lines in the input image, a combinatorial search is carried out to establish correspondences between lines in the input image and lines in the model. The algorithm requires no information about the specific color of the playing field and it is very robust to occlusions or poor lighting conditions. Moreover, the algorithm is generic in the sense that it can be applied to any type of sport by simply exchanging the model of the playing field. In Chapter 14, we again consider panoramic background images and particularly focus ib their visualization. Apart from the planar backgroundsprites discussed previously, a frequently-used visualization technique for panoramic images are projections onto a cylinder surface which is unwrapped into a rectangular image. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that the viewer has no good orientation in the panoramic image because he looks into all directions at the same time. In order to provide a more intuitive presentation of wide-angle views, we have developed a visualization technique specialized for the case of indoor environments. We present an algorithm to determine the 3-D shape of the room in which the image was captured, or, more generally, to compute a complete floor plan if several panoramic images captured in each of the rooms are provided. Based on the obtained 3-D geometry, a graphical model of the rooms is constructed, where the walls are displayed with textures that are extracted from the panoramic images. This representation enables to conduct virtual walk-throughs in the reconstructed room and therefore, provides a better orientation for the user. Summarizing, we can conclude that all segmentation techniques employ some definition of foreground objects. These definitions are either explicit, using object models like in Part II of this thesis, or they are implicitly defined like in the background synthetization in Part I. The results of this thesis show that implicit descriptions, which extract their definition from video content, work well when the sequence is long enough to extract this information reliably. However, high-level semantics are difficult to integrate into the segmentation approaches that are based on implicit models. Intead, those semantics should be added as postprocessing steps. On the other hand, explicit object models apply semantic pre-knowledge at early stages of the segmentation. Moreover, they can be applied to short video sequences or even still pictures since no background model has to be extracted from the video. The definition of a general object-modeling technique that is widely applicable and that also enables an accurate segmentation remains an important yet challenging problem for further research